Panelhead

Wife is leaving town on a trip with the girls. Which means I can work on the car.

1. Replace coil packs and plugs.
2. Maybe fuel filer
3. A miricle, drain and refill the differentials.

For item 1, any tricks after removing the air box to pull the rest of the air intake off? I have pulled the air box, but not the MAF and intake behind it.
Also, what is recommended torque for the plugs? Been 20 years since I swapped a set, and all were iron heads.
My last used car was a 1969 Chevelle SS396 Convertible, purchased in 1983. Been a fan of new cars. But like working on this Audi.

mishar

Nothing special for spark plugs. Just the air filter box and the MAF. Coils can be easily pried out with a big screwdriver (no need for a special tool). Torque 30 Nm.

Fuel filter can be tricky if the bolt holding it is rusted. You have to cut it (not easy) and replace it.

Rear differential is simple, just like any other cat. Front and middle one do not have drain plug. Front can be vacuumed, middle just topped. There is a hole in the cross member for access to the middle differential plug, but it is not perfectly aligned. That makes screwing it back very tricky.

Panelhead

[QUOTE
Torque 30 Nm.

This helps.

Fuel filter can be tricky if the bolt holding it is rusted. You have to cut it (not easy) and replace it.

Plan on cutting and using tie wraps. For a car from NYC it will be corroded.

Rear differential is simple, just like any other cat. Front and middle one do not have drain plug. Front can be vacuumed, middle just topped. There is a hole in the cross member for access to the middle differential plug, but it is not perfectly aligned. That makes screwing it back very tricky.[/QUOTE]

Will not get there. Already lost Sat afternoon. But planned on vacuuming all three.
Purchased two bottles of Mobil One 75w90. Is this correct for all three?
And is there a reason the middle cannot be vacuumed out? Seems like if it will pump in, it should be remove able. But I have not tried to access.
Used my trusty two way pump to suck out the power steering a few weeks ago. Had a slight burnt odor and was about an ounce low. Sucked the reservoir dry and refilled with fresh fluid. Used more than half the bottle. After driving a few days the reservoir seems to mixed.

mishar

This is how it looks. Additionally it is all full of gears. I couldn't find the way to get any hose into the oil so I could vacuum it. Of course you can't find Audi instructions on that. It is Lifetime Oil.



Rear differential has a regular drain. It's easier to drain than than to vacuum it.

MP4.2+6.0

Probably this isn't for the 4.2 (gas) in general. But for the S8's and W12's per my post some months ago now with a picture or two, you can drain both the front diff and the center diff--at least a good percentage of the gear oil--by dropping the gear oil cooler. If the tranny case has that cooler (in addition to and sitting U.S. passenger side/right beside the ATF cooler), they likely then have the shared fluid system. I never have really found where Audi says exactly which vehicles and motors have what, but it seems like it nets to the S8's and W12's. Might also be the larger TDI's in other markets given the higher torques.

You never know, but at least for other readers with different motors, it may be do-able. Did it myself. Look for the second gear oil cooler (toward the US passenger side up by the torque converter bell housing area) and some external lines buried on the passenger side of the tranny that run between the center and front diff units for the ones where what I am talking about apply. If do-able, does take a while, plus I modded the tranny support with a new access hole lined up to the center fill port. Read diff is a cake walk in general.

Regardless, the one advice I always suggest with ANY diff service is you always get the fill port open before opening any drain port. If fill port is a no-go or not accessible, call it off.

Panelhead

Did not get started until this morning. The coil pack issue may be from the service campaign. After pulling the coils there were six that ended in 1150 and two that ended in 115. An 1150 coil was on cylinder 1 were the misfire codes were. Looked in my box of OE coil packs from Audiusaparts and all 8 were the 115.
Assume they only replaced two coils and pull the yellow sticker on the car.
The plugs looked okay, were Bosch. May be originals. Replaced with NGK Laser Platinums.
Also, went to Walmart, and the 5 quart jugs of Mobil One 0w-40 were 22.66. This gets cheaper every time I see it.

halik

Fuel filter was a 15 min thing for me, on my A6 though it was a major ***** (involving a dremmel etc)